


Power Rangers Celtic Thunder

by Shane_Leath



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Power Rangers
Genre: Celtic, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Crossover, Gen, School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22349455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shane_Leath/pseuds/Shane_Leath
Summary: The Celtic Thunder Rangers are about to begin their final year of training before they head out into the Galaxy to protect it. But when they and the other Rangers are forced to coexist with Kamen Riders when their school, The Henshin Academy is shut down and an ancient evil returns to conquer what they lost, tests and reports become the least of their worries.





	1. Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> There's a few characters with names pronounced differently than written, namely Oisín O'Neal pronounced "aw-SHEEN" and Headmistress Scathach Sláine pronounced "SKAW- hawch SLAH-nyə".

Shane took a tray from the stack and started sliding it down the rails and as the lunch ladies began piling it with sausage, bacon, potatoes and various other breakfast staples he scanned the cafeteria for his friends, usually they would cook breakfast themselves in their dorm or grab it on the way to school but for whatever reason, all students were required to show up an hour early and gather in the cafeteria. He pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to his brother, Samuel O’Shea they weren’t actually brothers but you’d be forgiven for making that mistake, the pair have been together since they met in first grade.

‘Where you guys at?’ He grabbed a bottle of milk from the cooler, his favourite, Vanilla Nesquik, and while the checker rang him up his phone buzzed.

‘near the stage’ Shane rolled his eyes and started walking towards the stage setup at the front of the cafeteria, a stage that was hastily built and definitely not meant to stay based on its ramshackle appearance. It only had two podiums with microphones sitting on it, both had a banner hanging on the front, one had the school crest while the other had a crest that seemed familiar but Shane couldn’t quite place it. He was snapped out of his thought process by a shout from across the room, he turned his head, as did the rest of the room, to the source and saw a large, burly pale man in a black casual button-up and grey vest standing above the crowd. “‘Ey, where ye goin’ man, the party’s over here!” The man cried out while the girl next to him on the bench pulled at his arm to get him back down.

Shane diverted course and cut through the rows of tables and fellow students towards him. “Thanks, Murdoch!” Murdoch McGuinness, he was a loud and boisterous fellow that gave more thought to having a good time than anything else. The girl next to him was Darlene Gallagher, a small mousy girl that hated being the center of attention or near it, which was hard to do when with Murdoch. Shane took a seat between Samuel and the last member of his friend group, the Irish-Italian Stallion Oisín O'Neal who currently had his head face down on the table and wrapped in his arms trying to catch whatever little sleep he could.

Shane took a bite of his pancake and needled his friend. “Up a little too late were we last night Oisín?”

“Feck off Leath, we’re not all mornin’ people.” He replied, adjusting his head and arms to a semi-conversation conducive position with his head on its side resting in the nook of his elbow and the other arm grabbing a cup of breakfast tea. He was decked out in his white shirt, grey sweater vest and white jacket like usual and his Cross necklace clattered against the table while twisted around.

“Oh, I’m not a morning person, I just don’t stay out all night chasing skirts so I’m good to go in the morning.”

“I am not. A skirt chaser thank you very much, my Grandpa would kill me if he thought I was.” He smirked. On his right, Samuel was finishing scarfing down the last of his breakfast while watching the scene play out in front of him.

“So, what about you? Why didn’t you wake me up before leaving?” Shane asked.

“I tried, nothing could wake you up and Murdoch had already left so I couldn’t have him sling you over his shoulder.” Samuel responded pointing over at Murdoch.

“Tis true, I wanted to get here early before all the black and white puddings were gone.” Darlene’s face scrunched up that comment.

“I’ll never understand why you like that stuff, it’s disgusting.” Murdoch laughed and scraped up some remaining egg yolk with toast and chomped it down.

“You say disgusting, I say you’re missing out.” He chuckled through his full mouth. Shane dug into his own serving of black pudding as the group started speculating what the Headmaster’s reason for calling them early might be.

“So, any clues as to what Daghda has in store for us?”

“Maybe he’s stepping down?” Samuel guessed.

“Nah, if he was there’d just be a regular assembly in the gym or auditorium.” Oisín replied taking another sip from his tea.

“Mayhaps it has to do with why we received our Morphers early?” Murdoch quirred pulling his own out of a vest pocket. Normally, Morphers were confiscated from the students during the seasonal vacations so to avoid overzealous Ranger trainees jumping into a fight with the “professional” Rangers and mucking everything up. Plus they’d be useless clothing accessories outside the station, until a team graduated their Morpher's access to the Morphin’ Grid was limited by an inhibitor that activated when the owner left the station  
.  
Shane thought back a week earlier back home on Earth, he was up in his room, sitting by the window, reading ‘The Last Thing I Remember’ by Andrew Klavan and listening to the downpour of rain outside when a pair of headlights rolled up the driveway and came to a stop. He checked the clock on his phone, it was too early for Dad to be getting home from work and neither he or his grandma were expecting anybody. Shane continued watching as the driver opened the door, flipped a hood up over his head and got out making a dash for the front door ringing the bell a second later, causing the dogs to erupt in a loud chorus of barking. Shane put his bookmark in place and headed downstairs to open the door and find out who the stranger was.

“Hello?” he asked opening the door, the stranger flipped his hood down and Shane instantly recognized the man. He was a few inches shorter than him, his hair was mostly swept back but some fell down on the side of his face and his beard was thick but short and well kept. And under his eyes, which were obscured by a pair of large aviators, was a blue upside-down triangle. “Headmaster Reily?”

“Evening Shane, may I come in?” He nodded.

“Oh, uh yeah come in.” Shane stepped out of the way to make room for the Headmaster to step inside. Reily walked past him and into the living room and kitchen. “So, uh, what brings you here Headmaster?”

“Right, so this is your senior year, right? All ready to graduate and become a full-fledged Power Ranger?” Reily asked standing against the kitchen table.

“Yeah, I’ve been waiting since I came to the Academy.”

Reily laughed. “As have your compatriots, to varying degrees of enthusiasm.”

“You’ve seen the others? Tonight? What about?” Shane asked leaning on the table towards Reily.

“For the same reason I’ve come here, you know how all graduating Ranger teams face off against their own evil organization?” Shane nodded. “Well, that’s why I’m here, just to give you a little heads up and…” Reily reached inside his cloak and pulled out an object wrapped in a parchment held together by a simple piece of twine. “Give you this.” Shane took it from his hand and pulled on the twine undoing the knot and causing the parchment to open up, inside was a square-ish device about the size of a small tablet with a few disks the diameter of a soda can.

“My Celtic Shield Morpher? But, school doesn’t start for another week.”

“True, but we’re trying something new this year. The Morpher has been approved for use outside the station but you’ll only have 10 minutes each day to spend morphed.”

“Do the others have their Morphers?”

Daghda nodded. “They do, you were the last one.” He turned and started making for the door. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to get back home and finalize some things for the year.” Shane followed him to the door and saw him out before returning to the present day.

“Mmmm… probably not, if it were he’d just call us into his office and talk with us privately. He said the reason he gave them out early was because of something new they’re trying.”

“Whatever it is, it’s tied to The Henshin Academy.” Darlene pointing out gesturing towards the second podium on the stage. ‘That’s right!’ thought Shane. ‘The Henshin Academy Crest’. Oisin rolled his eyes. “Ugh, Riders. Bunch of stuck up jerk offs with a stand-alone complex.” Murdoch raised his glass in agreement and took a sip.

“The whole lot of ‘em, don’t even know the values of teamwork.” Samuel threw an arm around Shane’s shoulder and raised his own glass to clink with Murdoch’s.

“Or brotherhood!” Shane threw his arm around Samuel and raised his glass.

“Got that right!” Oisin raised his glass as well, Darlene raised her own but shrunk away from it too and Shane led them.

“Celtic Thunder!”

“LIKE NO OTHER!” The group cried, and Murdoch, excited, tried to start a song but was interrupted by a short and loud feedback scream from the speakers. They turned their attention to the stage and saw Headmaster Daghda Reily walk up and stand at the podium with the Zordon Academy Crest. He had the same stern, unflinching, unreadable face as always and eyes were hidden behind his dark aviators, his dress consisted of black slacks, a green dress shirt, orange tie, long dark green dress coat with white lining. He cleared his throat and the sound of it rolled from the speakers and across the room like a thunderclap.

“Good morning Rangers! I hope you had a wonderful summer and are excited to return back to school.” There was some groans and mumbling from the students but Daghda ignored and continued on. “Now, you’re probably wondering why I gathered you here so early, well simply it has to do with Headmistress Slaine from the Henshin Academy.” At the mention of the name, the whole room started erupting in annoyed and angry grunts while the Headmistress stepped up on stage and took her place behind the second podium. She was dressed like the Headmaster but exchanged the coat for a green cloak and wore an orange dress shirt, her skin was tan and she had the same markings under her eyes as Daghda, one of which was covered by a patch.

She adjusted the mike and began to speak over the grumbling students. “Hello Rangers, I hope you’re fine. Due to some construction in our section of the station Headmaster Reily and I have decided to unite our schools under one banner this year. We know that Riders and Rangers have a lot of differences but this is an opportunity for us to learn from each other.” When she finished a bunch of students from the Henshin Academy started entering the cafeteria, by looking at them you could tell that they didn’t want to be here; and the Ranger students didn’t want them there either as a few booed them and some of the ruder ones threw stuff at the Riders. Something the Teachers quickly put a stop to.

Reily didn’t show any disdain for the student’s actions but it could be heard in his voice as he continued. “Up till now Rangers and Riders have simply just, coexisted trying to stay out of the other’s way and often fighting when we do. Which is why we’re attempting to change this, by combining schools we’ll learn to do more than coexist. We’ll learn to fight together, not against, and when that happens no evil will stand in our way.”

Slaine glowered at the Rangers who were being hauled off by the teachers for throwing things while she continued. “We will stand alone, against the forces of darkness fighting for others who cannot fight for themselves!” While she spoke a few Riders grabbed the thrown objects at their feet and chucked them back at the Rangers, a plastic cup clocked Murdoch in the head. He slammed the glass he was drinking from on the table and snapped to his feet.

“WHO THE FUCK THREW THAT?!” He roared stared down the lines of Riders, a guy in the corner was laughing with his buddies and pointing at him, the ringleader was stocky with broad shoulders and a flat blocky face. One of his buds was smaller and had the face of a rat, while the other was a midpoint between the two with a long and round face and stick-like body.

Murdoch locked his eyes on to the target and charged leaping over tables and chairs, Oisin got up and charged after him. “Fuck, MURDOCH!” Oisin called after him, Samuel got up a few seconds later and followed.

“Those two aren’t gonna hold him alone.” Darlene felt like she needed to chase after but stuck planted to her seat and slid down to avoid the gaze of any classmates, Shane locked up and looked from his friends to the Headmasters not sure what to do about the situation. He looked up to the stage hoping to see the Headmasters moving to stop them but they stayed put. Reily had his arms crossed and was massaging his temple while Slaine was smiling and looked excited to see what happened next.

“YOU BASTARDS ARE GONNA REGRET THAT!” Murdoch roared leaping over the last table separating him from the Riders who just realized he meant business, Broad-shoulders squared up, Rat-face wasn’t sure what was going on while Stick-guy turned tail and ran. Murdoch pulled back a punch and leapt forward slugging Broad-shoulders in the jaw taking him to the ground. They tumbled on the floor for a moment till Rat-face kicked Murdoch in the side giving him pause and it was quickly retaliated by Oisin who slid under and grabbed Rat-face’s extended leg pulling him to the ground.  
Samuel ignored Stick-guy who had bailed and went to drag Murdoch off of Broad-Shoulders. “Get. The. Hell off. Him!” Finally, Shane snapped out of his hesitation and started running over, he separated Oisin and Rat-face of which the former had the latter pinned against the wall. Rat-faced would definitely be going to bed with a black eye, Oisin was also a little bruised and he had some blood dripping from his nose.

“Goddamnit.” Shane cursed under his breath, he grabbed Oisin by the upper arm and threw him away from the Riders. “Stop it.” He warned, there was a crash, Shane looked over to see Broad-shoulders had knocked Murdoch off and Samuel drug him away before he could get back on his feet. Samuel had his arms wrapped tight around his midsection.

“Calm down Murdoch! It ain’t worth it man!” Shane turned his attention to the Rider trio and went to help Broad-Shoulders up, nervously stuttering an apology.

“I’m sorry man, my friend, he means no harm truly but when he gets mad he-” Shane’s hand was slapped away and Broad-Shoulders glared at him.

“He’s a fucking monster, I thought you Red Rangers were supposed to lead and command your other Rangers. Not sick them on your opponents.” He spat, Rat-face helped him up while the returning Stick-guy shoved Oisin from behind and out of his way.

“We don’t need your help, Ranger.” He hissed with all the vitriol he could summon, Shane hung his head and watched as they walked off to lick their wounds in the nurse’s office. There was another clap of thunderous throat clearing as Reily finally spoke up, the disappointment and anger in his voice dripping like lead.

“Alright, you’re all dismissed. Morphers will be handed out in the 3rd period as usual.” He said before retreating off stage, Shane looked at Headmistress Slaine who was smiling ear to ear as she followed after Reily. Samuel walked up to Shane who’s head still hung in shame.

“Well, this year’s off to a grand start…” He sighed, smiling and waving at students passing by. Shane looked at him and sighed.

“Yeah, really grand. Come on let’s get Darlene. We need to talk.”

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 1 of Power Rangers Celtic Thunder! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


	2. Clear the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day back continues as the Rangers are called into the Headmaster's Office before striking out in their first Morphed battle! We also get a look at just who may be scheming against the Rangers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On my DeviantArt, ShadowRulz324, you can find a group shot their ranger suits.

As the students filed out of the cafeteria on their way to their first-period classes Shane grabbed Murdoch by the collar and drug him to the side. “Ok, what was that?”

Murdoch shrugged off his hand. “You saw exactly what that was! Them Riders hit me with a fucking cup or whatever and laughed at us!”

“They did that to all of us, and we did it to them too.”

Murdoch crossed his arms and shrugged. “Still, no one assaults Murdoch McGuinness and gets away with it. Shane fought the urge to strangle him and drug his hands down his face. He loved Murdoch, he was one of the best people to have in a fight but sometimes, he was too eager to get into a one.

“They didn’t assault you, Murdoch, this was like a fan dispute over a bad call in a sportsball game not-”

“Sportsball?” Oisin giggled, walking up with Darlene who had her head low and enveloped in her hoodie. “Why not just say football or basketball?”

Shane rolled his eyes. “Whatever, I don’t care what you do when you’re down at Kitty McGee’s or O'Hegarty’s piss drunk and someone calls you a name or insults your mom bu-”

“You are not bringing my mom into this.”

“I’m not I-” Shane groaned and walked away for a sec and Samuel stepped in.

“I think what Shane’s trying to say is you may have overreacted just a tad.” He said pinching his fingers together. Oisin nodded and put a hand on Murdoch’s shoulder.

“He’s right, this isn’t O’Leary’s where a fight happens every other night. This is the Academy, where so many great Rangers have graduated from and taught at; we’ve got a reputation to uphold!” Murdoch raised his brow and smirked.

“Really? Name five.”

“Uh, well there was… uh…”

“Huh? What? Who, there was who? Name one, just one.” Murdoch put a hind to his hear grinning. Oisin smacked the hand down smiling.

“That’s not the point, the po-”

“Oh, I think that is the point or-”

Darlene tried stepping in between them. “Guys…”

Oisin gently nudged her out of the way. “No, the point is we’ve got a-”

“Then why’d you bring it up huh?” Murdoch playfully slugged Oisin on the arm.

“Guyyyyyysss…” Darlene separated them but they walked away from her and Oisin wrapped an arm around Murdoch’s next and started giving him a nuggie.

“Nice try little boy, but the Horse is bigger than the Stag.” Murdoch stood up forcing Oisin to let go. Darlene tried getting their attention again but Shane placed a hand on her shoulder and stepped in front.

“GUYS.” The two stopped their brotherly spat to look at him.

“What? We weren’t gonna hurt each other.” Murdoch said, flicking Oisin in the head.

“Yeah, we’re just havin’ fun is all.” He followed with a hard slap to Murdoch’s midsection.

“That’s not it, the Headmaster wants to speak with us,” Shane pointed at Murdoch. “You in particular.” Murdoch’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes in objection but followed Shane as he exited the hall. The group walked down the halls of the academy towards the Headmaster’s office, the school and its was laid out like a quarter of a circle, another quarter of the circle comprised the Henshin Academy’s school and grounds. The other half was a town where the students and faculty lived during the school year, or year-round if they want. All of this was built inside of a giant “doughnut” shaped space station the size of the original Terra Venture’s city dome orbiting around Earth.

It was decided to build the Academies inside the space station as a safeguard of sorts, two schools for future heroes would be a huge target for any villains looking to conquer Earth. Plus S.P.D. wanted an outpost and the Academy Founders needed funding after repairing their Academies every other year because of the actions of various villains attacking Earth. It also provided easy access to the moon, a safe place for the Rangers to train with their Zords; something the Zordon Academy founder realized was needed after a team of greenhorns nearly levelled an entire borough of New Reefside City.

The team passed classrooms overflowing with students on their way to the office, they barely had room for the Rangers last year and with the influx of new trainees and the entirety of the Henshin Academy student body personal space was non-existent. When they reached the office entrance Shane took a breath, knocked on the door and waited. After a few moments, the door swung open hard and fast slamming against the adjacent wall scaring the daylights out of them. “Who is- Oh, The Celtic Thunder Rangers. The Headmaster’s been waiting for you.” The man in the doorway was dressed in a dark green suit, his long black hair was pulled back tight in a braided ponytail, and his dark brown eyes darted across the group scanning them.

Shane cleared his throat and stood straight. “Deputy Breas, morning.”

He smiled and his low but warm voice invited them in as he stepped out of the frame. “Morning to you as well Mister Leath, come in, come in.” As he closed the door behind Oisin, he muttered in a hushed voice. “Daghda doesn’t seem to happy so I’d advise some caution.” Shane nodded a thank you back at him as he climbed the steps to the main area, Daghda's office was split into two levels, the bottom floor had his desk and a seating area for more casual conversations and the upper level which served as an observatory deck for him to gaze out into the stars as well as a small library of books and more seating.

When they entered Daghda was leaning on the deck’s railing, his back to the group talking with someone out of sight. “Well, we’ll just have to talk with these two an-”

“Daghda! The Rangers are here!” Breas called, climbing up behind them. Daghda looked over his shoulder before twisting around to face them, hands clenching the railing.

“Hello, welcome.” His voice was light and mildly jovial but his mouth was stuck in a frown. “Glad you could make it.”

Samuel smiled. “A summons from the Headmaster isn’t one to be ignored.” he joked. Daghda pointed at him and the tips of his mouth lifted a bit.

“That it is Mr. Shea, that it is. Smart man.” No one could tell exactly who he was looking at due to the dark aviators but Murdoch felt his eyes boring into him like a drill.

“So why’d you call us here.” He asked. Daghda smirked.

“That was quite a show you put on just now the cafeteria.” Murdoch nervously smiled and gave a shallow bow.

“Th-thank you sir?” Daghda started across the deck and down the stairs, passing Breas who disappeared out of view on the deck.

“Oh yes, you’ve come far in your fighting since you came here. The way you leapt across that table,” As Daghda approached the group they split like the Red Sea so he could stand in front of Murdoch. “delivering that Superman punch to that other guy’s face.” He placed a hand on Murdoch’s shoulder. “That was really something.” Daghda squeezed hard causing Murdoch to flinch. “And I would praise you for it, really I would. If it weren’t a student you smashed the nose of.”

Murdoch tried wriggling out of the Headmaster’s grasp but it was iron tight. “I’m sorry Sir. I wasn’t thinking, the excitement kinda went to my head.” Daghda released him and started walking back to his desk.

“Oh, excitement. That’s what that was? I thought it was anger, I mean who wouldn’t be angry after getting hit in the head with a plastic cup.” Daghda’s mouth had dropped to a scowl as he turned to the Rangers again. He ducked his head just low enough to where Murdoch could see his bright green eyes boring into him. “I’ve seen you get mad before, I know it takes a while for you to get that worked up. Which makes me think there’s something else going on that this morning’s announcement compounded on. Am I right?” Murdoch nervously fiddled with his Celtic Cross necklace.

“Uh, n-no sir.” He glanced at Samuel who was scratching his head trying to avoid attention. “I just overreacted a little bit.” Daghda crossed his arms and raised his head and his eyes disappeared again.

“Ok.” Daghda started heading back up to the observation deck. “Don’t let it happen again. Headmistress Slaine and I are trying to do something almost unheard of and little spats like this morning will not help.” The Rangers stood there as Daghda climbed the steps when he reached the top he did a double-take. “What are still doing here? You have classes, get going.” Shane bowed his head and started leading them out of the room when their morphers gave a short jingle. He raised the Morpher and pressed the answer button.

“Heh-hello?” A thick Irish voice blasted from the speakers, Shane pulled the Morpher away it was so loud.

“‘Bout time ye eejits answered, ye got some chancers makin’ arseways of the courtyard. Give ‘em ‘ell!” Shane looked wide-eyed at the Morpher then at his friends.

“Uh… do you know have any idea what he just said?” The group shook their head and shrugged.

“No,” said Darlene. “But I heard something about the courtyard.”

“Then let’s head there and check it out.” They raced down the stairs and out the Headmaster’s office, leaving Daghda behind. As he watched them exit Breas walked up beside him.

“Seems they haven’t been introduced to their “mission control” person.” He joked.

“Yeah, they were supposed to be introduced in 3rd period and their first fight during 6th… The Miraigers are supposed to have their fight now.” Daghda frowned, stroking his beard.

“Perhaps someone was a little trigger happy? I’m sure it was just a mistake on the organizers part. Moved them around on the schedule by accident.” Breas reassured.

Daghda shrugged. “Perhaps, look into it when you get a chance will you please?” Breas nodded and started down the stairs.

“Yes sir, once I’m done with what I was doing I’ll visit them right away.”

“Thank you Breas,” Daghda turned back to the window. “Now, Ms. Slaine about these students of yours.”

...

“Eithne! EITHNE! WHERE’S ME HAT?!” A scratchy, slurred voice echoed through the ancient stone halls of the castle. A tall, lanky man in a pirate’s coat stumbled into a throne room. His skin was grey like ash and pointed ears and horns protruded from his black hair was a rat’s nest on top of his head and hanging down to his shoulders. A long, thin scar ran from his forehead and down his face, ending at the jawline on his left side. His one open eye was a pit of black, penetrated by a golden iris, the left eye was held shut by iron rings pierced through the eyelid. “EITHNE! Honey!” he shouted again, he started towards the throne but forgot how his feet work and wound up falling on the steps up to it, dropping a bottle in his hand.

A woman entered the room wearing a long black dress with blue accents, like the man she had grey skin, pointed ears, curved horns, and black hair. It was braided and fell midway down her back. A golden band set with a sparkling blue jewel in the center adorned her forehead while a black collar with a red rose wrapped around her throat. She walked over to the drunkard, her heels clicking on the polished stone floor. “Been in the stouts again Dad?” She picked the bottle off the floor as he reached for it.

“O’course, look at stumblin’ ‘bout like a newborn.” he laughed rolling over on his back, Eithne helped her father to his feet and over to the throne. “Now, where’s me hat?” Eithne rolled her eyes.

“It’s right here on the throne like it always is.” She removed a tricorne hat off the top of the throne and placed it on his head while he reached for the bottle of stout. “Have you heard from Lord Eochaid?” She pulled the bottle back and sat next to her father in a smaller throne beside his. The thrones they sat in weren’t very elaborate like one might think. They were carved and polished solid oak with veins of gold, silver and bronze running through the carved Celtic knotwork.

“No I ‘avent he’s supposed to be meetin’ me around now, that’s why I needed me hat. Not right for a Captain to be seen without his hat.” He joked fixing it properly on his head.

“Also not right for a Captain to be pissed during a meeting.” Eithne shot back.

“I just wanted a little drink, one drink is all I had.” He reached for the bottle again, failing again with Eithne holding him back.

“Uh-uh-uh, you can have the bottle back after the meeting.” The Dad groaned and sat back on his throne.

“Fine… I’m your father you know. You should listen to me more.” A Fir Bolg entered the room and bowed before them.

“King Balor, Princess Eithne, Lord Eochaid is here to see you.” Balor nodded.

“Good, great, let him in, let him in.” He gestured and righted himself in the chair. A pair of Fir Bolgs opened the doors to the Throne Room while a dozen more ran in and stood at attention on each side of the carpet leading from the door to the throne. Then a walking black cloak with long brown horns sticking through the back of the hood entered the room. As it approached the throne, it kneeled and removed the hood revealing another grey man with pointed ears and long black hair that fell around his shoulders and down his back.

“Good morning my King.”

“Morning, Lord Eochaid. What’s the news and call me Captain.”

“I’m afraid it’s unpleasant. Buama Sluagh was destroyed before he could accomplish his task.”

“What?” The Captain snapped. “Destroyed? By whom?”

“A student Captain, a Kamen Rider student to be precise.” The Captain stood up and walked down the steps to stand in front of Eochaid.

“A Kamen Rider? I thought the students weren’t to receive their little transformation trinkets till later in the day.”

“That’s what I thought too, but it seems someone gave this one out early.” Balor growled and kicked Eochaid across the chest, sprawling him on the floor. Eithne stood up and rushed to Eochaid’s side and helped him stand.

“Dammit! You said this would be the perfect time to strike, to wipe out half of our enemies at once!”

“I know Captain, but I’ve already sent another monster to make up for my failure.” Eochaid apologized before muttering to Eithne, “He’s been drinking again hasn’t he.” Eithne nodded before standing beside her father.

Balor rolled his golden eye. “What kind of monster?”

“Another Sluagh sir. He’s attacking the students now.” Balor smiled and turned back towards his throne.

“Good, at least you did something right.” As he sat down a thought crossed his mind and leaned forward. “The other students don’t have their morphers. Right?” Eochaid cleared his throat and stood straight.

“Well, Captain… there are five…”

…

Shane led the others out of the building into the central courtyard where they found a large, hunchbacked creature stomping about and leading a group of short, hairy dark grey-skinned men in an attack against some students. As they ran in, the hunchback shouted. “Oh great, more humans, Fir Bolgs attack!”

“Come on guys. It’s showtime.” Shane held out his Morpher while the others slid their shields on their arms. They each pulled a disk from their pockets, roughly the diameter of a soda can. On each disk was a Celtic drawing of an animal, Wolf, Badger, Butterfly, Stag, and Horse. “Rangers ready!”

“Ready!” They placed the disks on the top half of the shield near a slit on the side, as they did a ripcord extended from the side. They grasped the cord and shouted.

“CELTIC THUNDER!” They yanked the ripcord and the disks launched. They shot out of the top of the shields with a crash of thunder, the animals depicted on the disks rose out from them as they swirled around the Rangers from head to toe forming the suits. Finally, the animals each combined with their partner forming the Helmets and the disks wrapped around the waist and kilts fell from it.

“With an enduring faith!! **Celtic Thunder Black!** ” Murdoch roared.

“The guide to victory! **Celtic Thunder White!** ” Oisin shouted.

“Keeper of the soul! **Celtic Thunder Blue!** ” cried Darlene.

“With unflinching courage and tenacity! **Celtic Thunder Green!** ” Samuel yelled.

“With intelligence and cunning! **Celtic Thunder Red!** ” Shane cried.

“Clear the way! Power Rangers Celtic Thunder!” They shouted charging into the fight, Murdoch grabbed a statue of the White Ninja Steel Ranger from a garden and smashed it over the head of a Fir Bolg. Oisin took a student’s bag from a bench and swung it like a flail smacking a few in the head before ducking under a Fir Bolg’s punch. Oisin saw Murdoch throwing his weight around and slamming Fir Bolgs left and right, he looked from him to a sack one of the Fir Bolgs dropped and a lightbulb lit up.

“Murdoch!” He snatched a pair of bags and started running towards him.

“What?”

“Spin cycle!”

“You got it.” Oisin threw one of the bags to Murdoch and they started spinning in a circle clocking the Fir Bolgs and knocking them down like dominos. Then the dizziness hit and they both stumbled to a halt before walking into each other.

“Jesus Christ, I feel like I just drank a couple dozen pints.” Murdoch laughed, “That was a good idea though man.” He shook his head free of the dizziness and got back into the fight, Oisin followed soon after. Elsewhere in the yard, Darlene and another girl got cornered by a pair of Fir Bolgs, their backs to a pond.

“Got any ideas?” she asked.

“We go low, they go high?” Darlene suggested. The girl nodded and they grabbed the Fir Bolgs by the back of the neck and knee slammed their stomachs. The Fir Bolgs grunted in pain and charged with a punch, the girls grabbed their arms and used the momentum to send them into the pond. The Fir Bolgs splashed before melting away in the water. “We did it!”

Shane and Samuel charged towards the hunchback, Samuel pulled a slide spin sidekick that forced it against a tree while Shane followed up with sidekick to the midsection and uppercut to it’s jaw while it keeled over. “Yeah! Take that you ugly moth-” A large black fist slammed Samuel in the chest before he could finish, Samuel landed on a stone bench where he arched his back in pain. Distracted by him, the Sluagh knocked him back as well knocking over a statue of the Red Ninja Steel Ranger.

As he rolled over he muttered, “Well at least it wasn’t anyone important… Fuuuck…”

“Foolish humans! The Formorians will rise again! Surrender now or prepare to die!” The Sluagh yelled, failing to notice a flying Oisin from left field. Thrown by Murdoch Oisin landed on the Sluagh’s shoulders and started beating on his head with a rock.

“We’re not the ones dyin’ to-woah, woah, oh shit!” The Sluagh bucked around before crashing Oisin’s face into a tree branch, dislodging him; Darlene ran to his side and dragged him away while Murdoch charged with another statue, this time of Ninja Steel Pink, in his hand and, like an MLB superstar’s bat, swung it towards the Sluagh’s head. The swing was blocked and the Sluagh grabbed the statue and ripped it from Murdoch’s hands.

“Oh hell.” He shouted narrowly dodging the monster’s own swing of the statue which was smashed to pieces against the cobblestone pathway. “I hope Sarah’s not gonna be mad about that.” Their morphers jingled again, they answered the call and the same thick Irish voice blurted from it.

“Would ye stop faffin’ about and fecking end this miserable little pox before ye destroy another statue?”

“You got any ideas?” Oisin asked. “We don’t have our weapons yet!”

“Bet yer arse I do, use one of them disks ye got, use a 012 disk.”

Shane shook his head. “What?!”

“The green disk with the nettin’ on it! Use it like yer Morphin disks!” The angry Irish voice shouted before hanging up. Shane looked at Samuel who shrugged.

“Is the only thing we got.” He reached into a pouch under his kilt and pulled out a couple of disks, Shane quickly singled out the one and took it. He went to load it but was interrupted by a flying Ninja Steel Blue statue. They tucked and rolled away before Samuel grabbed the disk back. “That’s mine, get your own.” He joked. Shane reached into his own patch and removed the netting disk, he looked up and saw the others holding up their own disks. Shane nodded and they all loaded up.

“Hey! Hunchback!” Shane and Samuel stood and prepped their ripcords.

“Eh? Hunchback?! You’ll know what a hunchback looks like when I twist yer spine in a pretzel!” The monster charged on all fours, his large gorilla arms pounding the ground.

“Don’t think so!” Shane shouted and the group yanked their ripcords, the disks shot out of the shields towards the Sluagh, Shane and Samuel’s disks hit him right in the face, sending him stumbling back as ropes of energy latched on to it wrapping around his head like a muzzle for an asylum patient. Darlene and Oisin’s struck its arms bound them tight to its sides while Murdoch’s tied its legs up causing it to fall flat on its face. The Sluagh struggled against the energy binds until it disappeared in a bright flash of light when it faded all that remained was a set of disks lying in the crater created by the Sluagh’s fall.

The Rangers unmorphed in flashes of coloured light and Shane went to pick up the disks, they had an image of the Sluagh’s face on it with a set of three digits under it, 093. Samuel looked over his shoulder at them while Oisin grabbed one out of his hand. “So what happened? Did it get, like, trapped in this?” He wondered aloud holding up to the sun like a dollar bill.

Shane divvied out the remaining disks before placing the last one in the extra slot on his Morpher. “I guess so, I’ll bet whoever it was on the other end of the Morpher knows more about it.” They heard the bell ring and students began shuffling out of their classes on their way to the next one, a large number stopped at the windows to look out at them and the now wrecked courtyard. They couldn’t hear what they were saying but some were laughing, some seemed to be in awe and others took out their phones and took pictures. Darlene shuffled behind Shane while Oisin and Samuel smiled and waved at the crowd.

“I think it might be a good idea to go to class and let the groundskeepers take it from here…” Darlene whispered, Shane nodded and started walking away. She followed after him trying to use him as a shield against the student paparazzi.

“Yeah, come on guys. Our job’s done.” The others followed, Samuel was looking back and up to the sky, expecting something to happen.

“You mean there’s no giant monster battle? No Zords? No Megazord battle?”

“Doesn’t look like it, I doubt they’ve been authorized for use.” Samuel’s face drooped as they cut through the crowded hallways on their way to class. Murdoch and Oisin split off from the group at a set of stairs up to the third floor while reenacting the battle while Darlene headed down a hallway towards the gym pulling her hoodie up to hide.

“Awww… I was really looking forward to that.”

“I know, but I don’t think Daghda wants to deal with the property damage you’d cause in the fight.” Shane smiled.

“Hey. I did okay in the sims last year.”

“Yeah, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of okay.” He joked and started jogging down the hall. Samuel chased after calling out.

“I’ll have you know that about half of that was not my fault!” The two friends chased the other down the halls on their way to the first of many classes ahead and the first of many challenges behind them.

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 2 of Power Rangers Celtic Thunder! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


	3. Mission Control

Darlene slipped her hoodie back on and put the gym bag in her locker, out of all the classes she’s had to take over the years Physical Education probably her least favourite. The girls were bitchy and judgy in the locker room and the guys were loud and rambunctious in the gym, sit-ups and push-ups were a drag, the mile was annoying and the sports they played were uninteresting at best and exhausting at worst. Which was why she always put it off as long as she could, i.e. her senior years of High School and here at the academy. She had taken archery and martial arts prior in an attempt to bypass taking actual P.E. but school counsellors and graduation requirements are stupid and here she was.

She grabbed her bag and made for the door, she wanted out before the other girls had a chance to notice her, Darlene hadn’t experienced any bullying since 8th grade but what she did was nastier than what she experienced in high school. Constantly shifting alliances between the girls, judgment for hanging out with these girls, those girls, what you’re wearing, what you’re not wearing. It was a hassle, hell, and stressful to deal with so when she reached high school she put off the class till she couldn’t anymore. Which thankfully resulted in her classmates being less nasty, she wasn’t sure of the cause though but there were a couple of theories; one was that the girls were more mature in 12th grade than 8th, the other was that her retreating to the background of the social tapestry resulted in her going unnoticed by her peers.

Whatever the reason, she was out the door and on her way before the other girls even removed their sports bras. She checked her schedule, the rest of the day held World Cuisine, Field First-Aid, and most importantly and up next a meet and greet with her team’s Mission Control. When prospecting Rangers applied to the Academy they were tested in various aspects across two tests, first was a written exam that was basically an SAT or ACT meant to determine what normal classes you’d have to take before graduating. The Academy offered the same classes you’d find at any other college but wasn’t built around or meant to be about getting a degree other than a G.E.D.

It was built to train Rangers, as one might guess from the title, so the second half of the entrance exam was the more important and most weighted portion. It was also the longest, sometimes referred to as an unofficial 9th semester, as the students went through brackets of pairings to determine who worked best with who. Though they were given an option, when sending in applications, to list other applicants they want to be teamed up with. Though these teams were judged harder on the cooperative aspects since it was presumed they had some history working together.

As Darlene made her way through the halls to the Mission Control meeting she thought back 4 years when this adventure started. She remembered being back on Earth, a week before graduating from high school at the park, on a bench looking out over the lake. “You know I love you right?” Darlene looked at the girl sitting beside her, she was tall and lanky with long red hair, her blue eyes stared back at her.

“Yeah and I love you too Lacey but I… I feel like this is the right thing for me.” Darlene grasped the letter in her hand tightly, her acceptance letter to the Zordon Academy. “I’ve never known what I wanted to do before in my life but that day… I felt something… I felt a pull. I know in my heart I want to do this… no, I need to do this.”

“Yeah… I know… Are you sure? Are you sure it’s not just for-”

“Definitely.” Darlene’s face hardened with determination.

“Ok.” Lacey reached over and grabbed her hands. “Just promise me… Promise me you’ll come back in one piece.” She smiled. “We’ve been through too much together for you to go and die on me.” Darlene laughed softly.

“I promise.” Lacey smiled.

“Good, now let’s go pick out some dresses!” Lacey pulled Darlene to her feet and started leading her down the trail.

“Dresses?! For what!?”

“For the Graduation Dance! I want my girl to look like the Queen she is and everyone to see it!” Darlene returned to the present as she approached the doors to her next class down in the lower floors of the Academy and lying on the floor outside it smushed up against the wall was Shane, sleeping with a book over his face and earbuds plugged in. Samuel was sitting on a bench next to him scrolling away on his phone till he took notice of her.

“Hey Darlene, how’s it going?” Darlene took a seat next to him on the bench.

“It’s going fine. How’s it been for you and Shane?”

“Eh, it’s been alright, just a regular first day back.”

“Except for the monster attack.”

“Of course. You ready to meet mission control?” Darlene nodded.

“Is he ready though?” She pointed down at the sleeping Shane who’s foot started swaying. “He looks tired.”

Samuel waved his hand, “He’s fine just having a little nap. Didn’t sleep too well last night it seems.”

“Yeah, last night was kinda restless for me too. Moving back into the apartment was always a bit… something… odd? I don’t know what to call it.”

“Probably homesickness mixed with the return to space, you know Terra Venture was waaaaaay ahead of its time with all the tech they had on that thing, it’s gravity generators were state of the art at the time. Now, they’re just relics in a museum on Mirinoi and actually they weren’t all that great at doing what they did.” Samuel was a big fan of engineering specifically chemical but he didn’t mind branching out into the other fields since it helped him know more about what he could and couldn’t do on his end.

“They were super inefficient and could barely hold people down, they had to rely on the station’s sheer size to do most of the work. Also, centripetal force, like one of those carnival rides that spin so fast you stick to the wall.” Down the hall they hear the thunder of footsteps and shouting, Samuel leans out to look past Darlene while knocking the side of Shane’s head with his foot. “Do you know what the boys had before this class?”

Darlene grabbed her bag and looked down at the end of the hall. “Gym, I saw them in the guys class in the other gym.”

“How much you wanna bet that’s them running from an angry mob…” Shane removed the book from his face and rolled over on his stomach. He stretched and got to his feet and paused.

“What’s that sound?” He looked down the hall to see Murdoch and Oisin scrambling and sliding around the corner followed by a mob of students. “Oh hell. Come on, come on, come on, in the room, in the room, in the room.” Shane reached for the door and swung it open, Darlene quickly dashed in under Shane’s arm before Samuel. The room she entered looked roughly 200 square feet with a screen across the far wall and along the back wall were some empty weapon racks. Other than that the room was barren.

She set her bag on the table and took a seat, keeping an eye on the door where Shane stood holding it open and listening to the shouting outside. “IT WAS JUST A GAME YA SORE LOSERS!” That sounded like Murdoch.

“YOU FUCKING CHEATED! THAT WAS A FOUL AND YOU KNOW IT!” Oisin slid to a stop next to Shane and called back.

“BLAME THE COACH, SHE’S THE ONE WHO CALLED THE PLAY!” Then ran inside.

“SHE’S YOUR TEACHER, OF COURSE, SHE SIDED WITH YOU DAMN RANGERS.”

“SHE SIDED WITH US BECAUSE WE DIDN’T FOUL!” Murdoch grabbed Shane and shoved him in the room and slammed the door shut behind them and held it shut as the horde outside yelled and pounded on it. Shane crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame next to Murdoch. Darlene watched as the scene unfolded.

“I see you two have made some friends.” Murdoch smiled and locked the door.

“Oh, these boys? Eh, they’re just a bunch of sore losers.” Typical, Murdoch never liked taking the blame for the fights he couldn’t finish and/or win. His pride wouldn’t let him.

“I heard. Who started it?” Murdoch rolled his eyes and walked away from the door to take a seat at the table.

“Why do you always assume it’s me who started the fight, Shane? That really hurts me you know…” Shane crossed to the table.

“Because it’s always you who starts the fight, do we need to talk about this morning again?”

“No, no, no we don’t need to talk about it. But really I didn’t start the fight, sure there was some trash talk but that’s a given in sports.” Oisin pulled out a chair next to Murdoch and took a seat and popped his head in for a second.

“Actually you did kinda hit the guy a little hard with the ball…” Murdoch reached over and smacked him on the side of the head. Oisin was Murdoch’s partner in crime but he actually knew when too far was too far when it came to needling his opponents.

“Don’t tell him that.” Shane groaned and Darlene could tell he was fighting an urge to strangle Murdoch. Something Darlene could understand, kind of, she usually wanted to just drag him out of the spotlight he kept creating for himself and put a muzzle on him. She wanted to be the furthest one away from the spotlight at any time.

“Just, please don’t.” Murdoch nodded, Darlene just lightly shook her head and thought _‘We’ll see how long that lasts.’_.

“Thank you.” Shane sat down in a chair near the head of the table next to Samuel. Darlene had always looked up to Shane; he had the qualities she wished she had, confidence, ability to meditate and think on his feet. Samuel drummed his fingers on the table and whistled a tune.

“So… when’s the guy supposed to get here?” Samuel, Shane’s right-hand man, he was like Shane but a little looser in his demeanour, not to say Shane was uptight but there’s definitely a difference between the Shane behind closed doors with people he knew and trusted and the Shane around people he didn’t know and people that had authority over him. Samuel, on the other hand, was always the same, what you saw was what you got and if you didn’t like it you had to put up or shut up. Granted he was always respectful around authority and those that demanded it. Seemingly in response to his question, they started hearing shouting and crashing from somewhere. “What’s that?”

 _“Oh please don’t let it be…”_ Darlene’s eyes darted to the door while Murdoch got up and walked over, he peeked out the door’s window before turning back.

“Well it’s not the losers, they’ve abandoned their pursuit.”

 _“Thank God. Wait, if it’s not them… Then what?”_ Oisin rolled his chair over to the back corner where the weapon rack ended, there was a bare spot about 5 feet wide from it to the other wall. He placed his head against it and listened. “Oisin? What-” Darlene started before he shushed her and leaned into it.

“It’s coming from the other si-”

“WHO PUT THIS ‘ERE! Godfuck-SHIT.” There was a crash and Oisin rolled away back to the table before the shouting continued.

“I’m gonna kill that fucker, puttin’ shit where it doesn’t belong, creating goddamn leaning towers of fucking pizza.” There was a pause and a clunk before the wall section started turning to reveal a tall, lanky man with a thick orange beard and hair, he was dressed in the school staff’s uniform but the first few buttons were undone and his orange tie hung loosely around his neck. He walked over to a desk in the corner across him and picked a bottle up off it and started drinking from it. As he turned towards the door he caught the gathered Rangers out of the corner of his eye, he coughed and sputtered in surprise. The Rangers shared quizzical and amused looks while he quickly backtracked to his desk and used some paper towels to dab at the spilt liquid on his shirt. “Uh, top o’ the mornin’ Rangers, hope I didn’t keep you waitin’ too long. I wasn’t expecting you to be in ‘ere.”

They shook their heads, Darlene quickly recognized the thick Irish accent as the guy on their comms earlier. “Grand, so I’m your mission control and this is the control room, I’ll let you know when shit goes down and where it’s at. Submit new weapon requests as they’re required and give you new weapons as they’re approved and yada yada yada, blah blah blah. You’ve seen those TV Shows they make about us you know how this works.” He walked over to the table and sat at the head, he flipped a panel of it to reveal a keyboard. He flashed his hands across it and a holo-screen flickered to life over the table.

“Now, I’m supposed to give you a lecture about what you can and can’t do in this room, who can and can’t enter, and all that but you’re all adults. You’re seniors, you’re about to graduate, you should know all that. Or be able to figure out on your own, use those deductive reasonin' skills math taught you or somethin’. Least, that’s what my son’s math tutor says Math is supposed to teach but given he has a tutor you can guess how well that’s going.” He pulled a stack of cards from his pocket and started sliding them across the table to everyone. “These are your key cards, they’re your access to this room, without them you can not enter.”

Samuel raised his hand, “Then why were we able to get in without them today?”

“Uh, that’s because I, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to uh, open the door for you on time. Yeah, yeah that’s why.” Murdoch raised his brow.

“It’s not because you’re totally not drinking straight from a bottle of Jameson?” The man leaned in and stuck the bottle out for Murdoch to get a good look at.

“Ey, look here lad this ain’t no Jameson, this ‘ere is a fine bottle o’ Redbreast!”

“Oh, so shitty mouthwash.” Murdoch grinned.

“Are we gonna have a problem boyo?” Murdoch leaned his chair back and crossed his arms.

“I mean I’m not the one with an unrefined taste in whiskey so…” There was a slam on the table breaking their argument, they turned to look at the source and saw an exasperated Shane.

“MURDOCH!” Shane shouted. “Stop, for God’s sake please.” Murdoch shrugged but shut up, Shane turned to the MC. “Excuse him, he’s very… he… has no filter.” Darlene was admittedly spooked by the outburst, Shane usually tried keeping a cool head but Murdoch could put anyone’s cool demeanour to test.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“So, what’s your name sir?”

“Oh, my name’s Samson Kelly. And ah, I think that’s it for introductions so… If you don’t have any questions you can leave. I don’t have any reason to keep you around.” Shane reached into his pocket and pulled one of the 6 disks from the battle earlier. He placed it on the table next to his Morphin Disk and the 012 Disk he used.

“I have one, what’s with these disks?” Samson reached over and picked it up. He looked it over and thought.

“What, ye don’t know? You’ve never been taught about what yer Morphers do?” They shook their heads. “Ah, well, yet another example of the failure that is public education.”

Samuel interjected, “But, The Zordon Academy is a private institution…” but Samson continued without acknowledging him.

“So these are called Power Disks, and they, uh, have powers as you mighta guessed.” He flashed his hands across the keyboard again and brought up a larger image of the 012 disks. “They all have 3 digits, the first one denotes the owner, who can use it. 0 Disks can be used by anyone, one’s are Shane’s, two’s Sam’s, three’s Darlene’s, four’s Oisin’s, an-”

“Uh, excuse me, Mr. Kelly?” Oisin interrupted.

“-d 5’s- uh yes?”

“That’s not how my name is pronounced, it’s ‘Aw-Sheen’, not at all like it looks.”

“Huh, weird, anyway I’ll try to remember. Uh, where was I?”

“The disk digits, I’m guessing fives are mine?” Murdoch answered.

“Right, so the second digit is the kind of power it has, the 1 means capture, denoted by the netting on the disk’s face. Now this one… it’s a 9… so that’s… uh… feck I don’t know let’s find out.” He pulled a gun from his pocket, the pistol was fashioned after flintlocks from the days of piracy but the barrel was flatter and wider, like a clay pigeon launcher. Darlene’s eyes went wide and she started sliding down in her chair as he slotted the disk in, pointed it at the far wall and fired. The group threw themselves to the floor or under the table in a panic as the disk swung around towards Samson, it shot him in the chest and a wave of light reverberated over his body. Darlene peeked her head up over the lip of the table.

“Well…”

“Huh… I feel…” Samson walked over to the rotating wall and kicked it, nothing happened, so he kicked it harder and the wall spun around and took Samson with it. He kicked it again to spin it back around before walking back to the table and tossed the disk back to Shane. “So 9 is a strength boost, use it well. Lastly the third digit it is its potency, the higher the number the more potent the effect. And some of them also stack, like the Capture disk, so while the disk you captured that Sluagh with was a 2, all five of you hitting it made it a power of 10.”

Samuel piped up, “So, if we fired all of our strength boost disks at one of us would they get like, Hulk Mad strength?” Samson shook his head.

“No, but nice thought, that kinda thought process will be useful in figurin’ out how to use any new disks you get. As you saw from my demonstration, if you weren’t busy throwing yourself on the ground that is, the disk rebounded back to me meaning whoever fires it gets the effects. Some disks probably could be shot at one person though.” Samson sat back down and reached for his bottle on the desk. “Any more questions?”

“How do we get more disks? And do they, like, expire?” Oisin asked.

“Uh, well the first part is easy, catch more Sluaghs or I make them. Though I can’t make entirely brand new ones, I need a reference point, so I could make another strength boost disk but that requires combining them which we really don’t need to be doin’ right now.” Samson took another sip and continued. “Now, as for expiring… I’m not sure, you’ll find out eventually though.” He chuckled, he raised the bottle to his lips and checked the watch on his wrist. “Well, there’s about… 30 minutes left in this period? Wanna take a tour of the training sim?”

“Sure, bring it on.”

“Well come on then.” Samson stood up and walked to the revolving wall, “Now, be careful this thing’ll crush yer bones if you get ‘em caught between things.” He activated the door and it opened up halfway to let the group in before rotating shut. The room they entered was about twice the size of the control room and was covered mostly in gymnastic padding, in one corner was a walled-off area with glass panes protecting a computer inside.

“Wow… it’s a… psycho cell.” Samuel joked. Samson shook his head and entered the computer room, he took a seat at the desk and raised a microphone to his lips.

“Well, I hope you enjoy it. You’re gonna spend a lot of time in it, make your date scratches in the corner where no one can see ‘em. Now, let’s find out what you can do with that new disk!”

“Un-Morphed Training Exercise 01: Initiating.” Holographic training dummies and fake scenery appeared and the walls changed appearance to replicate a warehouse.

“Show me what ye got Rangers! Use those disks well and no morphin’! GO!” Samson shouted and the exercise began, the group instantly snapped to action deflecting punches from the holo-mooks. A mook charged from the left towards Shane, he ducked at the last minute and Samuel struck it in the face. He hopped over them as Shane swung his legs around and swept a mook charging for Samuel off his feet. Samuel pulled Shane to his feet and they went to town on the remaining mooks around them.

 _“Ok Darlene, what do we do, what do we do?”_ She started backing away from the group forcing a few mooks to follow after her, as they approached she backed into a hanging chain. One mook armed with a sledgehammer swung wildly at her; she leapt back catching the chain on her foot. The mook barely missed her and got their hammer caught in the chain as well, she tried yanking her foot free but stopped when she started hearing rattling and screeching metal above her, Darlene glanced up and saw it was tied to a scaffolding.

 _“If I pull this chain too much I’ll pull that down on me an-”_ her thought was interrupted by a mook jumping on her. “AH! GET OFF ME!” She forgot about the scaffolding and her training kicked in, she bucked her hips up sending the mook forward onto its hands. She grabbed the right arm and pulled it in, before rolling to the right and as she did her left foot that was caught in the chain pulled it with her. She kicked her right leg out to stop the rolling before mounting the mook and bringing a hard hammer fist down on its face. She stood up and turned around to face the previous mook but watched as the scaffolding collapsed on top of it. _“Well, that takes care of that.”_

Meanwhile, Oisin and Murdoch were backed into a corner with a bunch of barrels and were tiring out. “You know if I knew we were gonna be thrown into another fight… I wouldn’t have thrown those balls so hard…” Murdoch panted, he grabbed one mook by the collar and smashed its face in with a headbutt before tossing into another. “Ooohhh I shouldn’t have done that… That hurt.”

“Yeah… this is… not great… Wanna try it?” Oisin gasped, he ducked under a mook’s swing and came back with an uppercut knocking it back. Murdoch grabbed his Morpher and pulled out the strength disk.

“Let’s… do it…” Oisin attached his own and they loaded the disks and inserted the ripcord. “DISK BOOST!”

“FIRE DISK!” The disks shot forth from the Morphers and bounced across the mooks before whizzing back to Oisin and Murdoch, they melded into their bodies, their heads snapped back as light shimmered across them. They tilted their heads forward with smiles on their faces and fire in their eyes. “MURDOCH SMASH!” Murdoch grabbed a barrel behind him and swung it around, crashing it into the cluster of mooks surrounding them.

“I feel like I’ve got a second wind!” Oisin cried, he grabbed another barrel and threw it into the air, He leapt up and axe kicked it down onto the fallen mooks. The barrel shattered open, spilling its contents all over the mooks and floor. Oisin landed next to them and struck a pose. “Oisin Barrel Impact!” The mooks fizzled away into pixels and the warehouse dissipated.

“Good job Rangers, there’s obviously some room to improve but I saw a lot of good stuff out there.” Samson announced over the speakers. Samuel walked over to Oisin and Murdoch, raising a high five.

“Nice moves boys, I wish I could do that kinda stuff with Shane.” Shane nudged him in the arm.

“If only my mind moved that fast.” He chuckled.

“Oh it’s nothing, I just open up windows.” Murdoch started.

“And I leap through ‘em.” Oisin finished.

“I just wish I had someone to do teamwork moves with.” Darlene thought. They heard a door open and close behind them and Samson walked over to them sipping on his Redbreast. He set it down on the floor and pulled out a clipboard he was carrying under his arm and started handing out papers to the Rangers.

“So, these are notes the computer’s battle sim, tactical evaluator, strategery thingie came up with while it recorded. I didn’t take any notes because, well, I don’t know how you fight yet so kinda pointless for me to do it. If you wanna watch the recording of the sim you can access it on one of the computers in the Control Room or if you want to do this sim again, just call out: ‘Brain, start Unmorphed Training Exercise 01.’”

“Un-Morphed Training Exercise 01: Initiating.” The room’s walls and the floor started to transform again.

“NO NO NO NO NO, STOP TRAINING EXERCISE! FALSE ALARM! FALSE ALARM!”

“Un-Morphed Training Exercise 01: Ending.” The transformation halted and reversed back to normal. Samson picked his bottle back up and started towards the door.

“Well, that’s how you do it, you’ll only be able to access this one though. I need to run you through the exercise first before you can do them alone. Now I’ve got somewhere I need to be, so I’ll be leaving you here alone. Don’t wreck the place and yadda yadda yadda, you’re adults you know what to do. See you tomorrow.” He called behind him as he left the training room.

“So what now?” Darlene asked as they all started drifting to the door.

“Well, I’ve got more classes to get to.” Shane said.

“Me too.” Samuel responded.

“And I… I’m frikken tired.” Murdoch lightly chuckled as he followed the others out the door to the Control room.

“Yeah, I think that strength boost wore off.” Oisin muttered, starting to lean on Murdoch.

“I think you two need a nap.” Shane laughed, “Why don’t you lie down for a bit.”

“That sounds like a good idea…” Murdoch muttered and slumped against the wall, he slid against it and fell asleep when he reached the bottom. Oisin sat in one of the chairs and laid his chest against the table, resting his head on his arms.

“We’ll see you guys back at the apartment later, have fun with school… or whatever…” Oisin yawned.

“See ya.” Samuel called back and the three exited the room, then they each split off towards their next class and hoping none of them required any more fighting.

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 3 of Power Rangers Celtic Thunder! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


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